Brushing Off the Dust

There is always something that needs to be done on a ranch. The world has trouble agreeing on a lot of things, but I would argue that everyone would agree with me on this one. There is a lot of work to do at Red Horse Mountain as we gear up for the 2018 summer season. Over the last week, the staff has been pouring in. Housekeepers have been shining up the place and Wranglers have been legging up horses.

It’s important to stay flexible around here. For example, when you are told that a good dozen or two horses are coming a week before staff training…and only half of them show up a week before guests arrive (We call these our Montana horses). Or when we de-lice the entire herd only to have it rain the second we finish the very last horse. The powder needs to stay on for at least twenty-four hours which means, yes friends, a few days later we redid the entire process. We curried the winter coats off again. We dusted the ponies in white fairy dust again and we chased the naughty ponies that don’t like to be caught all over again. I must admit, though time consuming, this has been a fantastic exercise for the new Wranglers as we try to learn the names of a herd of 100 horses…well it’ll be 100 when the all the Montana’s finally get here!

Our conversations go something like this, “Hey Tim, how do you know this one is Tuffy?”

Tim: “Oh that’s easy, he’s tuff because he only has one sock. Plus RC has that Harry Potter mark on his side, so you can’t get those two confused.”

Me: “Ah, I gotcha, what about this grey one?”

Tim: “Well that’s lightning, he’s easy to remember because his tail is so thin that it looks like it’s been struck by lightning.” It’s the little things around here!

This morning the kitchen crew was practicing for guests. This meant that the wranglers got to be waited on! We laughed and smiled as our co-workers filled up our water glasses and brought food out to us.

I am stoked about the staff this season. We have the gears rolling and we are so excited for guests to arrive!